What are the differences between

Raspberry Pi and Arduino?

Raspberry Pi and Arduino are quite different boards. Each board
has its own advantages and disadvantages. If you want to decide
between the two, then it depends on the requirement of your
project. Let understand these two boards in detail.

Arduino was invented by Massimo Benzi in Italy. Arduino was a

simple hardware prototyping tool. While raspberry pi as
invented by Eben Upton at the University of Cambridge in the
United Kingdom for improving the programming skills of his
students.

These both teaching tools are suitable for beginners, hobbyists.

The main difference between them is Arduino is microcontroller
board while raspberry pi is a mini computer. Thus Arduino is just
a part of raspberry pi. Raspberry Pi is good at software
applications, while Arduino makes hardware projects simple.

Below table gives you some differences between them.

SL Raspberry Pi Arduino

It is a mini computer with Arduino is a microcontroller, which

1 Raspbian OS.It can run multiple is a part of the computer. It runs

programs at a time. only one program again and again.

2 It is difficult to power using a Arduino can be powered using a

 battery pack. battery pack.

It requires complex tasks like

It is very simple to interface
installing libraries and software
3 sensors and other electronic
for interfacing sensors and
components to Arduino.
other components

4 It is expensive It is available for low cost.

Raspberry Pi can be easily Arduino requires external hardware

connected to the internet using to connect to the internet and this

5
Ethernet port and USB Wi-Fi hardware is addressed properly

dongles. using code.

Raspberry Pi did not have

Arduino can provide onboard
6 storage on board. It provides an
storage.
SD card port.

Raspberry Pi has 4 USB ports to Arduino has only one USB port to
7
connect different devices. connect to the computer.

8 The processor used is from ARM Processor used in Arduino is from

 family. AVR family Atmega328P

This should be properly This is a just plug and play device.

shutdown otherwise there is a If power is connected it starts

9
risk of files corruption and running the program and if

software problems. disconnected it simply stops.

The Recommended

programming language is
10 Arduino uses Arduino, C/C++.
python but C, C++, Python,

ruby are pre-installed.

These two boards run on very low power. But power

interruption for raspberry pi may cause damage to the software
and applications. In case of Arduino if there is any power cut it
again restarts. So raspberry pi must be properly shutdown
before disconnecting power.

Raspberry Pi comes with the fully functional operating

system called Raspbian. It has all features of a computer with a
processor, memory and graphics driver. Pi can use different
operating systems. Although Linux is preferred android can also
be installed. Arduino does not have any operating system. Its
firmware simply interprets the code written to it. It is very easy
to execute simple code.
Input and output pins allow these boards to connect to other
devices. Raspberry pi2 has 2 packs of input/output pins while
Arduino Uno has 20 pins.

Pi is faster than Arduino by 40 times in clock speed.Pi has ram

128000 times more than Arduino. So Raspberry Pi is
more powerful than Arduino.

Arduino has 32kb of storage on board. This is used for storing

the code. This code decides the functions of the Arduino.
Raspberry pi does not have any onboard storage. But it provides
micro SD port.

Arduino can be expanded using external hardware like Wi-Fi,

Ethernet, touch screens, cameras etc. These boards are called
shields. These shields are easily installed for Arduino. While
raspberry is self-constrained board.Pi can also add some hats to
add hardware like Touch screen, GPS, RGB panels etc. but does
not have many options like Arduino board has.

Arduino uses Arduino IDE for developing the code. While

Raspberry Pi can use Scratch, IDLE anything that supports Linux.

How to decide between Raspberry Pi and Arduino

So to decide between the two, first you should know what you
want to do in your project.

 From above discussion we can understand that Arduino is

good for repetitive tasks such as opening the garage door,
switching the lights on and off.
 While pi good for performing multiple tasks, driving
complicated robots.
 For example, if you want to monitor the soil moisture and
mail me if it is necessary to water the plants. For this
application, arduino can be used.
 But if you want to monitor the moisture, mail me when the
plants need to be watered and check the weather report
from online. If there is rain do nothing. For this application
Raspberry pi required.
 In simple Arduino is used for beginners projects and some
complicated projects can be easily handled by pi.